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alphadogg (971356) writes "Google offers lots of services and it has pretty good reliability. How does the company do it? Much of that is up to Ben Treynor, Google’s vice president of engineering, and founder of the company’s site reliability team. And he’s developed an interesting approach at Google for thinking about reliabilityk, and a key part of that is what he calls an "error budget.""Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "A setup mistake has apparently left hundreds of thousands of home routers running the SSH (Secure Shell) remote access tool with identical private and public keys. John Matherly, founder of a specialized search engine company whose technology is used for querying Internet-connected devices, found more than 250,000 devices that appear to be deployed by Telefónica de España sharing the same public SSH key. A different search found another 150,000 devices, mostly in China and Taiwan, that have the same problem. Matherly said in a phone interview on Wednesday it is possible the manufacturers copied the same operating system image to all of the routers."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "Now more than ever, the development of the Linux kernel is a matter for the professionals, as unpaid volunteer contributions to the project reached their lowest recorded levels in the latest “Who Writes Linux” report, http://www.linuxfoundation.org... which was released today. According to the report, which is compiled by the Linux Foundation, just 11.8% of kernel development last year was done by unpaid volunteers – a 19% downturn from the 2012 figure of 14.6%. The foundation says that the downward trend in volunteer contributions has been present for years."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "In the latest Internet of Things security blunder, personal weather station devices made by Netatmo were found sending users’ Wi-Fi passwords back to the company over unencrypted connections. Netatmo weather stations can be used to monitor indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels and overall air quality. Users can see the data collected by their stations in real-time through an app installed on their phones, tablets or computers."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "Facebook is taking its crusade for open networking to a broader battlefield, using its 16-port “Wedge” switch design as the basis of a new modular platform that can link together racks of servers across a data center. The social networking juggernaut doesn’t intend to become a data networking vendor. It designs switches for its own needs and then open-sources its hardware designs so others can use them. In time, other companies could turn Facebook switch designs into products for sale, but Facebook won’t be directly involved, said Facebook's director of engineering said."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "Thefts involving smartphones have declined dramatically in three major cities since manufacturers began implementing "kill switches" that allow the phones to be turned off remotely if they are stolen, authorities said on Tuesday. The number of stolen iPhones dropped by 40 percent in San Francisco and 25 percent in New York in the 12 months after Apple Inc added a kill switch to its devices in September 2013. In London, smartphone theft dropped by half, according to an announcement by officials in the three cities."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "Rick Hampton, the wireless communications manager for Boston-based Partners Healthcare, has seen the dialogue among network professionals heating up in the wake of the FCC’s sternly-worded enforcement warning about illegal Wi-Fi blocking and says it’s no wonder the commission is fired up. He contends that the way in which many organizations have set up their wireless networks, based on overhyped products that have led them to believe anything goes, just won’t fly in a world where people increasingly are using personal Wi-Fi hotspots to get safe and easy Internet connectivity over unlicensed airwaves wherever they happen to be. After all, the FCC was created by Congress back in the 1930s to put the kibosh on just such intentional interference of radio devices. Read Network World's Q&A with Hampton."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "A deadly air crash that killed a pilot and passenger in Colorado last year was likely due to a loss of spatial awareness brought on in part by taking of selfies while in flight, the National Transportation Safety Board has concluded. An examination of the aircraft revealed no apparent problems that would have caused the accident so, based on the previous patterns of behavior, the NTSB concluded that “it is likely that cell phone use during the accident flight distracted the pilot and contributed to the development of spatial disorientation and subsequent loss of control.”"Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "The FCC has been very clear that it didn’t approve of a Marriott International hotel’s blocking of convention center attendees’ Wi-Fi hotspots: It fined the hospitality company $600,000 last fall and issued a stern warning on Jan. 27 that such wireless network interference by others will not be tolerated either. But what remains murky to IT shops and wireless LAN product vendors is exactly what constitutes illegal “Wi-Fi blocking”. Online discussions are heating up among IT pros across various sites, and lawyers and vendors are being called upon to help organizations figure out what they can and can't do in terms of WLAN security and management. “This issue is riddled with complexity and ambiguity,” says David Callisch of Ruckus Wireless, which filed its comments to the FCC jointly with Aruba Networks. “The FCC should use this as an opportunity to work with the industry to help companies know what are appropriate security measures that can be employed to protect networks operating in unlicensed spectrum without violating the [Communications] Act.”"Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "Amazon Web Services today launched a new product to its expansive service catalog in the cloud: WorkMail is a hosted email platform for enterprises that could wind up as a replacement for Microsoft and Google messaging systems. The service is expected to cost $4 per user per month for a 50GB email inbox. It’s integrated with many of AWS’s other cloud services too, including its Zocalo file synchronization and sharing platform. The combination will allow IT shops to set up a hosted email platform and link it to a file sharing system."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "The FCC on Tuesday warned http://transition.fcc.gov/Dail... that it will no longer tolerate hotels, convention centers or others intentionally interfering with personal Wi-Fi hotspots. This issue grabbed headlines last fall when Marriott International was fined $600K for blocking customer Wi-Fi hotspots, presumably to encourage the guests to pay for pricey Internet access from the hotel."Link to Original Source

alphadogg (971356) writes "The best way to avoid wasting your money on Wave 2 of 802.11ac access points is to not buy them right away, and the second-best is to not overreact to their presence on your network. Wave 2 APs have been on the market for about a year, dating back to last January’s release of the Asus RT-AC87U, but the technology hasn’t yet become commonplace among enterprise users."Link to Original Source